Join our Mailing List

Tell-A-Friend

Featured Commentators

Kenneth L. Marcus is President of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Director of the Anti-Semitism Initiative at the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, and author of Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (New York: Cambridge University Press: 2010).

The Louis D. Brandeis Center is, as David Horowitz recently observed, “a critically important new legal organization which will fight back against the persecution of Jewish students and the enemies of Israel on college campuses. Marcus has been battling campus Anti-Semitism for quite some time and is exactly the right lawyer to lead the charge.”

Marcus also serves as Chair of the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Legal Task Force, Vice President of the International Association for the Study of Antisemitism, and editorial board member at the Journal for the Study of Antisemitism.

During his public service career, Marcus served as Staff Director at the United States Commission on Civil Rights and was delegated the authority of Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights and Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Shortly before his departure from the Civil Rights Commission, the Wall Street Journal observed that “the Commission has rarely been better managed,” and that it “deserves a medal for good governance.” As head of the Office for Civil Rights, Marcus spearheaded nationwide enforcement initiatives addressing misplacement of minority students in special education, gender equity compliance procedures, and access for students with disabilities. During this period, he also authored landmark federal guidance establishing that Jewish students would receive the same civil rights protections as other minority groups when they face discrimination in federally funded educational programs or activities. For his work in government, Marcus was named the first recipient of the Justice and Ethics Award for Outstanding Work in the Field of Civil Rights.

Marcus also previously held the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at the City University of New York's Bernard M. Baruch College School of Public Affairs (2008-2011). Before entering public service, Kenneth Marcus was a litigation partner in two major law firms, where he conducted complex commercial and constitutional litigation. Marcus is a graduate of Williams College, magna cum laude, and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.